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hand feeding

Hi I just wanted to say that I have Charlie who is nearly 4 now and he refuses to eat from a bowl, he will pick the bowl up and dump the contents on the floor and then eat it or will go for days without eating until someone hand feeds him something but he will absoloutly WILL NOT eat from a bowl (or a plate) - we tried the whole leave it down for 15-20 mins thing and he will just go for days without eating - it doesnt seem to bother him in the slightest - he will just sit looking at it. He now gets fed on the floor (really hygienic!) as that is the only way we can make sure he will eat it and he gobbles it up - he is very happy with the situation as i am sure he is as he has manipulated us into it!

Hi I just wanted to say that I have Charlie who is nearly 4 now and he refuses to eat from a bowl, he will pick the bowl up and dump the contents on the floor and then eat it or will go for days without eating until someone hand feeds him something but he will absoloutly WILL NOT eat from a bowl (or a plate) - we tried the whole leave it down for 15-20 mins thing and he will just go for days without eating - it doesnt seem to bother him in the slightest - he will just sit looking at it. He now gets fed on the floor (really hygienic!) as that is the only way we can make sure he will eat it and he gobbles it up - he is very happy with the situation as i am sure he is as he has manipulated us into it!

If you are happy with that then enjoy it If that doesn't work for you and you would prefer to change it then change it. Just wondering exactly how many days has he gone before without eating??? What about treats? What about water? Do you hand-fed every day? Or does he just eat off the floor? Which wouldn't bother me after all I would just be cleaning the floor more often. Again if you can live with this then by all means enjoy your dog however you wish but if you want some advice and support just let me know.
True I don't have a ton of dog experience but I have plenty of stubborn child experience. I cannot tell you how many parents would tell me well Johnny will just not clean up his toys so we do it for him or Suzy doesn't eat anything but chicken nuggets so we just feed her chicken nuggets 3 times a day every day........ Just plain silly. I have always wanted to ask these parents well when he's 17 and "really" wants to smoke pot/ drink/ skip school are you going to be allowing that too because its easier to keep the kid happy????? Sorry rant But its the same thing.

Melissa
"If you don't own a dog, at least one, there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life."
-Roger Caras

Have you tried a Kong? You can pack his food into that using some mashed banana or wet dog food -- then he gets the fun of working it out and you don;t have the mess on the floor. Or a treat cube that he pushes around and dispenses kibble?

I absolutely would not handfeed a dog as you do not want a decade of having to do that every single day (and no kennel, vet or boarding place will hand feed).

If feeding on a section of the floor works for you -- that sounds OK too. How about a sheet of paper under it, moving to a paper plate over a time?

I am moving this to a new thread as the original thread is three years old.

I'm wondering if your dog just doesn't like it's ears to touch the bowl also. Have you tried pinning it's ears up while eating...a snood I think people use. Or getting him special Spaniel bowls.

I didn't get mine a Spaniel bowl, but did find a narrow-ish shallow one in a pet shop that keeps her ears much cleaner. She didn't mind the other bowl--I just didn't like the food caked in the ear feathers every day.